How to draw · Confident · about 25 minutes

Horse

You need: Paper, Pencil. Optional: Eraser, Brown, tan and dark brown crayons, colored pencils or markers.

Thick lines: draw these now. Thin gray: already drawn. Dashed: light guides you erase later.

Finished
  1. hipschest

    1. Draw two light circles the same size, side by side with a small gap: the chest circle on the right and the hip circle on the left.

  2. 2. Draw a smaller circle up and to the right for the cheek and a little circle below it for the nose. Join the head to the chest with two light neck lines.

  3. legs = body depth

    3. Draw a light ground line below the body. Leave a gap about as tall as the body: a horse's legs are about as long as its body is deep.

  4. 4. Draw the back: start at the top of the chest circle, dip a little in the middle, then curve over the hip circle. Draw the belly between the two circles.

  5. 5. Draw the neck: a curved line from the back up to the head, then a throat line from under the head down to the front of the chest.

  6. 6. Draw two pointed ears. Then draw the face: down the front to the nose, around the soft round nose and chin, and back under the jaw to the throat.

  7. 7. Add an eye high up on the head, a curved nostril near the front of the nose and a short mouth line.

  8. 8. Draw the near front leg. It is thick at the top, the knee sits about halfway down, and the hoof is a wide block that stands on the ground line.

  9. 9. Draw the round rump and the near back leg. The back leg bends backward at the hock, the opposite way to the front knee.

  10. 10. Draw the far legs behind the near legs. Stop each line where it meets a near leg, and set the far hooves a little higher: they are farther away.

  11. 11. Draw the mane in wavy locks along the top of the neck. Add a small tuft of hair between the ears.

  12. 12. Draw the long tail. It starts at the top of the rump, flows down and ends in a few soft points.

  13. erase

    13. Erase all the light guides: the circles, the neck lines and the ground line.

  14. 14. Finish with shading and details. Light comes from above, so add short slanted lines under the belly. Draw a line across each hoof and a few hair lines in the mane and tail.

Practice here

Tip: Press very lightly for the circles and lines in the first three steps. They only show where the parts go.